Graduate-Student Workers Make Gains in Unionization at Several Universities Moves Parallel Growth in Their Teaching, Research Roles. EDUCATION OR LABOR?

Reese Erlich,, The Christian Science Monitor

GRADUATE-STUDENT employees at several universities nationwide say
they made important gains in organizing this spring, a sign of the
growing clout of campus unions.

Analysts say the unions' accomplishments can be traced to
students' economic hardship, a recent upsurge in student activism,
and the changing nature of major United States universities. The
latest gains are particularly important, activists say, because most
universities categorically reject the right of graduate student
employees to bargain collectively.

- On May 14 graduate-student teaching assistants (TAs) and
research assistants (RAs) at the University of Massachusetts at
Amherst won the right to hold a representation election in which
they will choose whether to be represented by a union.

- The graduate-student union at the University of California at
Berkeley ratified agreements May 16 regarding health care, grievance
procedures, and automatic deduction of union dues.

- On June 4 a state labor board recognized that the Graduate
Student Employees Association at the University of California at
Santa Cruz has "majority support" among TAs and RAs.

Other universities with unions or organizing campaigns include
Temple University, Purdue University, and the University of
California at Los Angeles.

Since the 1950s, as universities have expanded and regular
faculty has concentrated on academic research, graduate-student
employees have played an increasingly important role. RAs provide
valuable research for faculty projects. TAs lead discussion sections
and are the primary instructors in many introductory courses.

"Universities couldn't function without graduate-student
teachers," says Marty Morgenstern, chair of the Center for Labor
Research and Education at UC Berkeley.

New York-based District 65-United Auto Workers has spearheaded
nationwide efforts to unionize graduate-student workers. Renee
Heberle, an organizer for the Graduate Employee
Organization-District 65-UAW (GEO) at UMass Amherst, says economic
hardship has been the single biggest factor in spurring
unionization. TAs and RAs on her campus received no pay raises for
the past two years, even as academic fees rose. That increased
interest in the union, which she says now represents the majority of
the campus' 2,500 graduate student employees.

Mr. Morgenstern says graduate students feel exploited. …

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